Tuesday, March 04, 2008

EPIC RACE ONWARD!

TEXAS, OHIO KEEP CLINTON ALIVE

HIL' TAKES 3 of 4"Keep on watching, together we'll make history."OBAMA LOOKS AHEAD"We have the same delegate lead as we did this morning."A.P lede: Clinton had "a confetti night."Obama's Axelrod: "I don't think they put a dent in our lead."NBC's Russert: "We are going for 3 more months."***LOCAL DEMS DIVIDED***

Hillary Clinton won Ohio, Texas and a boat full of momentum and new morale, yet Barack Obama might have still scored more delegates Tuesday night in a Democratic presidential primary race that offered more wild signs it could wind all the way to the summer convention in Denver.

Clinton scored wins in Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island. Obama won Vermont, and lost the night. Clinton clearly won the news cycle, the see-saw expectations game and all the momentum with it. Still, NBC's Chuck Todd noted, Obama still might come out of the night with more pledged delegates, although we might not know it for days.

On the Republican side, John McCain officially clinched the Republican nomination with a clean sweep of four states and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee dropped out of the race. Closer to home, local Clinton and Obama supporters disagreed on what all the results mean going forward.

In any event, speaking right after 10 p.m. Central time, Clinton told an exuberant crowd in Ohio that their votes gave her the symbolic victory to plow ahead. "As Ohio goes, so goes the nation," Clinton said. "This nation is coming back and so is this campaign," she added.

Ten minutes after Clinton spoke, Obama returned the volley. "Whatever happens tonight, we have the same delegate lead as we did this morning," Obama told an outdoor crowd in San Antonio. Strikingly, Obama focused most of his speech on John McCain, and linked the G.O.P. nominee to his fierce Democratic opponent. "John McCain and Hillary Clinton have echoed each other dismissing this call for change," Obama said. "The world is watching what we do here."